Limited company | |
Founded | December 1974 |
Founder | Richard Desmond |
Headquarters |
Lower Thames Street London, EC3 United Kingdom |
Services | Publishing and television |
Owner | Richard Desmond |
Subsidiaries | Express Newspapers |
Website | www.northernandshell.co.uk |
Northern & Shell (holding company name Northern and Shell Network Ltd) is a British publishing group, launched and founded in December 1974 and currently owned by Richard Desmond. It publishes the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday, and the magazines OK!, New! and Star. Northern & Shell also owned three entertainment television channels: Channel 5, 5* and 5USA until 2015. It owned Portland TV, which operates adult TV channels including Television X and Red Hot TV; the company sold Portland in April 2016.
Desmond founded Northern and Shell in 1974 and launched a magazine called International Musician and Recording World. In 1983, Northern and Shell obtained the licence to publish Penthouse in the United Kingdom which led to its publishing a range of adult titles,Asian Babes among them. These titles were later sold in 2004. It was the first company to move to the revamped Docklands and the Princess Royal opened the offices. When the company moved to the Northern & Shell Tower, the Duke of Edinburgh opened the offices.
Northern & Shell also publishes a wide range of magazines including the celebrity weekly, OK!, started as a monthly in 1993.